


Everything is Suddenly Amazing Here

by electribunny



Series: Check Please Oneshots [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst with a Happy Ending, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24795187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electribunny/pseuds/electribunny
Summary: Nursey jumped back like he’d been burned, and immediately went back to the essay. Dex sighed and went back to his work. He wasn’t going to think about why Nursey’s rejection hurt so much. He wasn’t going to think about why that had even happened in the first place. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to think about what might have happened if Bitty never interrupted them.---The five times that Dex refused to think about his crush on Nursey+The one time he didn't have to
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Series: Check Please Oneshots [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759195
Comments: 8
Kudos: 151





	Everything is Suddenly Amazing Here

**Author's Note:**

> heyyyy so ive wanted to write nurseydex fic for months and I only just now got around to it. i also wrote some like,,,real angst look at me go bee is going outside their comfort zone! bee also needs to stop talking about themselves in the third person. 
> 
> anyyyways, this might be my last oneshot for a while as I'm going on a road trip, and its hard to write fic when ur either on the road or in a tiny hotel room with a family that doesn't know about your writing. i am going to have my beta reader hunter update my multi chapter fic while I'm on the road though, so there won't be complete radio silence. 
> 
> i also just made a omgcp sideblog. it would mean a lot if you checked it out! the URL is bittle-hxney
> 
> title is from AJR's "The Entertainments Here." i will admit i took this line out of context but it worked so well i just had to
> 
> anyways that's it! enjoy the chapter!
> 
> Tumblr: lavender-hxney  
> omgcp blog: bittle-hxney  
> beta reader: h0n04rys3n10r

He heard him coming before he saw him. Quick footsteps, the basement door opening, about five seconds of silence, some more footsteps, his bedroom door opening, and then Derek Nurse was throwing himself onto Dex’s bed before he could even get a word out. The impact caused his laptop to shift, and he rushed to grab it before it fell to the ground. 

“Nurse, you gotta stop sliding down the railing. You’re gonna break it one day. The stairs are there for a reason. Also, you almost broke my laptop. And if you’re going to put your feet on my bed, take your shoes off first.” Dex scoffed, saving his work before shutting his computer and setting it on his nightstand. He wasn’t going to get any work done with Nursey around. 

“Hello to you too, Poindexter.” Nursey rolled his eyes, but did in fact move his feet off the bed before laying down completely, resting his head right by Dex’s knee. 

“Yo.” Dex responded, raising his eyebrows as he looked down at Nursey. “What did you need? I don’t know if you noticed, but I was a little busy before you came barreling in here.” 

“Oh!” Nursey pulled out his phone before opening his camera roll. “I just wanted to know if you knew this person.” He handed the phone to Dex, and it was the back of a person who had very long red hair. Nursey’s eyes gleamed as he looked up at Dex, and he seemed pretty proud of himself. 

“We’ve been over this man. I don’t know every redhead in existence.” 

“Okay, well do you know  _ him _ ?” He reached up and swiped to the next photo, which was a picture of a lobster, obviously taken in the same grocery store that he snapped the picture of the person in. 

Dex didn’t answer this time, just pushed him off the bed, and tried not to think about why his heart thumped when Nursey giggled as he hit the ground. 

\---

Despite no longer living in the bedroom upstairs, Dex still shared the bathroom with Nursey and Chowder. He had installed a fancy shower head in there, and he wasn’t letting his hard work go unused. 

Turns out you learn a lot about someone’s self-care habits by sharing a bathroom with them. And it turned out that Nursey took very good care of himself. The shower was lined with shampoos that just looked expensive, their price accentuated by having them sitting next to Dex’s 2-in-1 and Chow’s Old Spice. There were fancy body creams and moisturizers specifically for his under eyes (which was a bit excessive in Dex’s opinion.) and he knew they were Nursey’s because Dex and Chowder shared a bottle of generic store brand lotion. He had a bottle of hibiscus water that he used instead of cologne, despite the fancy colognes that his mothers often sent over to him. And he was always buying increasingly pretentious chapstick’s which made Dex want to hide his family-sized pack of off-brand vaseline. The latest pretentious chapstick was toasted marshmallow flavor, if the empty packaging in their trashcan was accurate. And that was just fucking outrageous. 

God, he wanted to know what toasted marshmallow tasted like against his lips. 

He refused to think about why he cared so much about Nursey’s self-care routine. 

\---

He sat on his bed, notebook in one hand, pencil in the other, as he methodically corrected the math problems. He knew his handwriting looked like chicken scratch, but his sloppy penmanship was amplified by Nursey’s beautiful writing. He somehow made Algebra 202 look like poetry. Dex didn’t even know why he was helping him out. It wasn’t his fault that Nursey had procrastinated on his math requirements until junior year. 

Nursey sat next to him, Dex’s shitty computer in his lap as he made what seemed like an excessive amount of corrections to his essay. That was why he was helping him out. 

He would’ve done it anyway. But Nurse didn’t need to know that. And besides, he really did need someone to proofread his essay. English 301 was going to be what killed his scholarship if he wasn’t careful. That class was fucking impossible, and he had to sit there and watch while Nursey breezed through English classes at a much higher level than the one he was taking. Dex didn’t even know why so many English classes were in his CompSci degree requirements. 

“Jesus Nurse, I don’t even know how you passed Algebra 101. Pretty handwriting won’t get you anywhere if none of the problems are right.” 

“You think I have pretty handwriting?” Nursey looked up at him. 

“Jesus, that’s the part you focus on? No, your handwriting is fucking atrocious. I take it back.” 

“Nope, no takebacks. You think my writing is preeeettyyyyy.” He set the laptop aside, and went to lean himself against Dex. However, he misjudged the distance, and almost went flying off the bed. Dex caught him last minute, fingers carding through the expensive floral button up. Nursey righted himself, and after making sure that he wouldn’t fall, Dex realized that Nursey was all but sitting in his lap. 

His cheeks flushed. He saw Nursey blush too. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, then Dex tentatively reached to cup Nursey’s face in his hand. He was surprised at how soft his skin was as his fingers danced across his cheekbone, then supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. Maybe his expensive face creams weren’t excessive after all. 

They stared at each other for a few seconds more, then the moment was broken by Bitty shouting downstairs. 

“Boys! If you’re done with your work, there’s fresh pie!” 

Nursey jumped back like he’d been burned, and immediately went back to the essay. Dex sighed and went back to his work. He wasn’t going to think about why Nursey’s rejection hurt so much. He wasn’t going to think about why that had even happened in the first place. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to think about what might have happened if Bitty never interrupted them. 

\---

Nursey hadn’t talked to Dex since the incident, and it was affecting their chemistry on the ice. Dex didn’t understand why he was being so weird about it. He had been ignoring the weird mix of feelings that he associated with the words Derek Nurse for months, he didn’t know why it was so hard for him to do the same. 

Nursey didn’t have a scholarship that was in danger if his on-ice performance slipped. Dex did. It was starting to piss him off a little. Nursey could be emotional and weird all he wanted to, but it was impacting Dex negatively. 

Ford and Bitty were whispering to each other pretty aggressively on the bus ride to the hotel after their game against Harvard. They had won, but just barely, and it definitely wasn’t thanks to their D-men. Dex wasn’t proud of the win, and he was pretty sure the rest of the team wasn’t either. 

He normally roomed with Nursey on roadies, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Nursey had asked for a room switch. He prepared himself for a night of listening to Chowder babble on instead of sleeping. Unless Nursey was selfish enough to ask to room with Chowder  _ himself,  _ in which case he supposed he should prepare himself for BItty’s disappointed looks, and pretending not to hear his skype call with Jack. 

Sure enough, Nursey went straight to Ford and Bitty after they all piled into the lobby, but to his surprise, Ford and Bitty just shook their heads. He looked a little upset, then Bitty pulled his captain face, and that’s when Dex stopped eaves watching. He felt like he had been making forward steps with Nurse lately, but now he had just leaped back to the beginning. 

Nursey didn’t even say a word to him as he handed Dex a keycard to their room. That stung. Before, he could pretend that the avoiding was accidental. But now, he had to sit there as Nursey straight-up ignored him, and he tried not to think about how maddening the scent of hibiscus water was. 

It was weird sharing a hotel room with someone who refused to talk to him. He tried to initiate a conversation once, but then Nurse made a point of putting on his headphones and turning them up all the way, so Dex just watched NHL highlights on the TV and tried to ignore how much he just wanted Nursey to fucking  _ talk to him.  _

\---

Two days later, Dex was trying to fix some bugs in his coding, when Bitty suddenly appeared in his room. 

“Save your work.” He said, with no room to argue. 

“Huh?” 

“Honey, just save your work.” He looked tired. Dex sighed, and hit save. After it confirmed, he slowly shut his laptop and set it down. Bitty grabbed his hand, and began dragging him up the stairs. He knew he could resist it he wanted to, and he probably would’ve gotten out of it if he really tried, but Bitty looked determined, and he honestly didn’t want to mess with that. 

He was dragged all the way to Nurseys’s room, where Nursey was already sitting, Chowder next to him. When he saw Dex, he left, Bitty following closely behind. The door clicked shut behind them, and then they were alone. 

“I don’t think they’re going to let us out of here unless we talk,” Dex said. 

“Nope,” Nursey said, avoiding his eyes. 

“Damn it, Nurse, can you at least fucking look at me! I know you’re being all weird right now, but it is that hard to even acknowledge my existence!” 

“Sorry.” He mumbled, still not looking up. 

“Fucking hell Derek! You’re kind of really making me feel like shit right now, you know. Am I really so horrible that five seconds of something even slightly,  _ maybe _ not platonic is enough to shut me out forever?!” That did it. Nursey’s eyes snapped up to him then, and he didn’t know if no eye contact or the intense eye contact was worse. 

“No. No, you’re not. I’m taking out my personal problems on you. It’s shitty, and I’m being shitty. I’m sorry Will. I’m so sorry.” His eyes began to cloud up with tears. 

“Can we just, go back to normal, please? I miss you. I miss being your friend.” Dex was on the verge of tears himself now. 

“I miss you, too,” Nursey whispered. “I’m so sorry.” He repeated, and Dex was pulling him into his arms before he knew what happened. 

The pain of rejection had faded, but the familiar feeling of his heart fluttering returned as Nursey shoved his face into his chest. He tried not to think about it. He had already ruined his friendship with Nursey once. He wasn’t going to do it again. 

\---

He was doing it again. He was still staring at the plaque in his hands. He ran his finger over the text again. “Samwell Men’s Hockey Captain 2017-2018: William J. Poindexter.” It didn’t feel real to him. 

Just like Nursey’s voice, soft in his ear, “Of course I voted for you.” 

Of course. Of course. 

Of course, of course,  _ of course.  _

Like it was obvious. That there was no one else that he wanted to be captain. Like he had taken his ballot and written “William Poindexter.” in his stupidly beautiful handwriting without even having to think about it. 

He set his plaque down on his bedside table, then ran up the stairs. Nursey was sitting on his bed, dress clothes still on. He snapped his head up when Dex ran into the room. 

“You voted for me.”

“I did.” 

“ _ Why?” _

“Why wouldn’t I?” 

“Fuck-I” Dex took a second to scrub the tears away from his eyes. 

“Will.” Nursey was standing up now, and before Dex knew it he was crying into his expensive dress shirt. 

“I’m going to ruin your shirt,” Dex said, but tightening his arms around him anyways. 

“I don’t care,” Nursey said. “I’m so sorry for ignoring you for those few weeks back in February. You didn’t deserve it."

“I don’t care about that. It’s over now.” Dex lied. 

“Well, I do. I still wish you would’ve kissed me then.” 

“What?” 

“Can I kiss you?”

“Yes!” Then Nursey’s lips were on his before he had a second to think. He didn’t push down the fluttering in his stomach and the singing in his veins, because he didn’t have to. He was able to savor the warm and wonderful feeling and he finally,  _ finally _ , knew what toasted marshmallow tasted like against his lips. 

  
  
  



End file.
